Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

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PalmArrow
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Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

Post by PalmArrow »

I have made several story threads on the official EA forum. I will start my posting here with this one, because it's relatively short, standalone and finished.

Before playing this save I hadn't properly used the gardening and nectar-making skills, and after getting a lot of farm-related content from the store I decided to play a farming household in Riverview - but a Riverview made up to look a little like Champs Les Sims.

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PalmArrow
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

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The household I decided to play was based on the BBC sitcom Miranda, written by and starring comedian Miranda Hart. The sitcom has nothing to do with either France or gardening, but I've been wanting for some time to play a sim based on Miranda's character, because her personality translates so well into sim traits. So my household and a few townies were based on characters from the show.

This is Miranda. She is clumsy, a couch potato, childish, a hopeless romantic and has a good sense of humour.
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This is the character on the show. In the sitcom, she comes from a middle class family and went to a posh girls' boarding school, but doesn't want the kind of life her mother imagines for her (a respectable office job and respectable marriage). Instead she decides to open a joke shop. In my game she decides she wants to be a nectar-maker.
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Miranda keeps falling over or losing her clothes in public places - that's why I think she'd make a good sim:
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This is Miranda's best friend Stevie. In the sitcom she's the manager of Miranda's joke shop; in my game she is in charge of consigning the produce and nectar.
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She is ambitious and flirty (in the sitcom she calls it "having The Allure".) She should be tiny, but I don't use height sliders, so she's just thinner than Miranda.
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

Post by PalmArrow »

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And the third member of the household is Gary, a friend Miranda has long had a crush on. He works as a chef in the show, which is convenient because that profession exists in the game, and because cooking goes so well with gardening.

Miranda is a old-fashioned sitcom in many ways, inspired by BBC sitcoms from the seventies and eighties, but very different in one aspect: there are many female main characters, each of them funny in their own way, but only one main male character, whose role is not to be funny but to be the eye candy. That's Gary!
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PalmArrow
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

Post by PalmArrow »

The non-household characters are:

Miranda's snobbish mum Penny who would love to arrange a good marriage for her:
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I think that of the sim versions I made, Penny looks the most like the character:
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And there's Tilly, Miranda's friend from the posh boarding school, who appears to be successful in life in the ways Penny would like Miranda to be.
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In her case the sim I made doesn't really look like the actress. She has a distinctive face shape, but I found it hard to copy and in the end I settled on a sim whose face fits Tilly's snobbish and outgoing personality.
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

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The beginning of the story finds our heroine, Miranda, pouring some nectar in the Riverview nectary. Her mother Penny wanted to buy several crates of nectar for a charity soiree, and has brought Miranda along because - who knows - she might find a husband! Men are much less picky when under the influence of nectar - those were Penny's exact words.
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Her mother's intentions aside, the nectar tasted really good.
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"Hey, Mum! Why don't you come and sit next to me?"
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"Don't be ridiculous, dear. If you have a glass too much and start singing, I don't want people to know I know you."
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"That was actually very rude, Mum."
To get away from her mother for a while, Miranda decides to explore the greenhouse and garden.
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

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The plants in the greenhouse look lovely! Since her mother is a good customer, Miranda knows she's welcome to pick some fruit and try her hand at nectar-making.
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Why not? She starts with some delicious-looking white grapes.
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Meanwhile, her mother is chatting to the nectar merchant.
"Your red nectar is the colour of rubies. I love rubies, by the way. Emeralds are so overrated."
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Miranda picks some more grapes in the garden, and takes the fruit into the nectar cellar.
"Hmm, the instructions say I have to change into swimwear. That's so embarrassing! But I'm alone in here at the moment, so why not..."
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"Ooh, this is actually really fun."
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

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After squishing the fruit, she runs upstairs full of enthusiasm.
"Mum! I have found my dream career! Nectar-making!"
"You mean, you want to buy some shares in a nectary? That's an excellent idea."
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"No, Mum, I want to actually make the nectar. With my own hands. And feet."
"Now you're being ridiculous, Miranda!"
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"You've never been good with your hands. You'd probably find a way to fall into a jar of nectar and drown in it, ha ha! Such fun!"
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"Can you see how ridiculous she is?" Penny is thinking. "How am I ever going to find her a husband?"
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Later, Miranda meets her best friend Stevie and tells her about her nectar-making idea. Stevie is much more supportive. In fact, she would love to join her, but neither of them has the funds for it.
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

Post by ZeeGee »

This is just brilliant on so many levels! What a great idea to take characters from a TV show. You did an excellent job of making them sims and making over the town. And I love that you've concentrated on two specific activities. There is so much to do in Sims 3 it can be overwhelming so picking two to concentrate on is a great idea. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the story. :)
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

Post by PalmArrow »

Thank you so much, ZeeGee! Whenever I tried the gardening skill before this save, my Sim would gain a few levels and then all the plants would die because I would forget about them, so I definitely needed farming to be the focus of the story in order for a Sim to succeed. :D
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Re: Nectar-making is SUCH FUN!

Post by PalmArrow »

The new day is about to bring a change into Miranda's life.
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The morning post arrives...
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It turns out that great-uncle Archie - an distant relative they almost forgot about - died and left Miranda and her mother 50,000 simoleons each.
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Dear old uncle Archie! Suddenly the nectar-making dream doesn't seem so impossible.
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Miranda meets Stevie to tell her the good news.
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